How Seriously Do You Take Clinical Guidelines?

Experts gather an exhaustive amount of data to synthesize concise statements and recommendations.

The American Urological Association, the American Society of Nephrology, and virtually every other major physician organization develop and promulgate clinical practice guidelines. It is a tedious process that involves groups of experts performing an exhaustive review of the literature and discussing how to synthesize concise statements from the latest data.

For example, the American Urological Association recently released its latest guidelines for the surgical management of stones. The effort involved a systematic review of 1,911 articles from peer-reviewed journals and resulted in 56 statements related to imaging, preoperative testing, and treatment of kidney and ureteral stones.

Renal & Urology News invites its nephrologist and urologist readers to answer the following poll question: